The Definite Article with Class Nouns in English and in French
Курсовой проект - Иностранные языки
Другие курсовые по предмету Иностранные языки
objects either indoors (e.g. the corner, the window, the table, the door, the wall,etc.) or out- of-doors (e.g. the stars, the trees, the flowers, the houses, the leaves, the birds, the bees, etc.)
e.g. As I came up our street, I saw my mother and my brother waving
from the window.
The trees swayed to and fro under the grey sky.
- The definite article is used with class nouns denoting objects that are normally found in a particular place. For example, when we speak about the cinema or the theatre we say: “I couldnt find my seat and asked the attendant to help me.”
2.4 The Usage of the Definite Article with Class Nouns in French
The French definite article is used much more often than its English counterpart.
Note: When there are two or more nouns listed in a French sentence, the definite article must be listed in front of each one.
The French for the “class nouns” is les noms concrets - concrete nouns. Having consulted the book of E. K. Nikolskaia and T. Y. Goldenberg “Grammaire Franaise” we learned that the French definite article is used:
- Before concrete nouns when they designate a material in their broad sense.
Le bronze est un alliage de cuivre et dtain.
Bronze is an alloy of copper and of tin.
Thus we see a considerable difference between the notion of class nouns in English and noms concrets in French: the nouns of material also belong to the group of class nouns in French that is not observed in English. So there are differences in the usage of the definite article with class nouns in English and French. Another example of the different usage of the definite article in English and French can be:
Lessence est trs chre en France.Gas is very expensive in France.Jaime la glace, le chocolat et le gteau.I like ice cream, chocolate, and cake.
These sentences are good examples of the fact when the definite article is used in French with nouns in their general sense whereas in English the given nouns belong to the group of material nouns and they do not get any article when used in general sense.
- Before concrete nouns which designate a sort.
Lhirondelle est lavant-coureur du printemps.
The swallow is the spring forerunner.
This example coincides with the English variant when the definite article is used with the nouns in their generic sense.
- Before concrete nouns in plural for designating the totality of the objects.
Et la foule de rire, surtout les enfants et les jeunes filles. (By this example the French mean that all the girls and all the children enter to this crowd.)
And the laughing crowd, especially the children and the girls.
- Before the nouns that are unique: soleil (sun), lune (moon), ciel (sky), horizon (horizon) in case they are not individualized. The same case of the use we find in English as well.
La terre est verte perte de vue.
The earth is green far and wide.
- Before the nouns that indicate a certain object.
A noun can be determined by:
- the context :
Comme Luc arrivait devant lAbme, il aperut langle du pont de bois, deux figures noires et chtives. Son coeur se serra. Ctait une femme, lair trs jeune, pauvrement vtue, et ctait un enfant , de six ans environ peine couvert, la face ple, qui se tenait dans ses jupes. Comme Luc stait arrte quelques pas de la jeune femme et de lenfant, il entendit ce dernier qui disait...
This sentence presents an example of the use of the definite article when it points out a noun determined by the context.
- the situation in the given circumstances: the interlocutors are familiar with the persons and the objects they are speaking about:
O peut-il tre? Au rfectoire, la sale de lecture?
Where can he be? Is he in the dining room or in the reading room? (The interlocutors speak about the rooms of the building where they are.)
- a noun can be determined by the attributive which is expressed by a noun or infinitive used with preposition de:
Esmeralda se dirigea, travers les spectateurs bahis, vers la porte de la maison o Phoebus lappelait, pas lents, chancelante, et avec le regard troubl dun oiseau qui cde la fascination dun serpent.
Esmeralda made her way through the perplexed audience towards the door of the house where Phoebus was calling her, she went slowly and her look was troubled as of a bird that yielded to the snakes fascination.
“…towards the door of the house where Phoebus was calling her” stands for …vers la porte de la maison o Phoebus lappelait . In this case the usage of the definite article coincides in both languages. In English it is the case of a prepositional phrase, namely of-phrase which requires the use of the definite article.
- sometimes a noun can be determined by a relative clause:
Jai achet le livre que tu mavais recommand.
I bought the book that you recommended me.
This case of the usage of the definite article in French coincides with that in English when a noun is used with a particularizing attribute.
- a noun can be determined by certain adjectives as premier, dernier, principal, essential, primordial, etc. as well as seul, unique and all the adjectives in superlative degree:
Cristophe se mit labri sous le toit avanant de la premire maison. (Roland)
Cristophe hid under the shade of the first house roof.
The use of the definite article in English is accounted for the presence of the ordinal numeral before the noun which has the function of limiting attribute.
- a noun can be determined by the meaning of the verb:
Je revis la grande cour sche, le prau, la classe vide. (Fournier)
I saw again a big dry court, a yard, an empty class.
The usage of the definite article in French accounts for the meaning of the verb used in the sentence that implies a repeated action, so the nouns are used with the definite article as they are already known for the speaker. As for English the indefinite article is used as it presupposes the meaning of one.
Judging by the examples presented above we can conclude that the words cases in the usage of the definite article in the English and the French languages are:
- when it is used as a determinative of a certain object and here are some cases that coincide in both languages:
- when the context and the situation itself make the noun definite;
- when the noun is modified by prepositional phrases: of-phrases and other prepositional phrases in English and phrases with the preposition de in French ;
- when the noun is used with a particularizing attribute;
- when a noun is used in its generic sense pointing out the whole class;
- with the nouns that are unique;
- when a noun is used with ordinal numerals.
As for the differences in the usage of the definite article in French that we do not meet in English they are the followings:
- the main difference that appears between these two languages is that in French the group of class nouns contains the nouns that denote a material whereas in English this type of nouns is classified in a separate group and does not have the same rules in the usage of the definite article.
- the definite article in French can be used with the noun which is determined by the verb denoting a repeated action;
- the definite article is used in French with material nouns, and it is not used in English.
But taking into consideration all the rest cases of the usage of the definite article in English there will appear many more differences as presented above.